Useful tips for fired heater optimisation

Model predictive control that is native to the regulatory control processor

provides high-speed, redundant and robust control for process fired heaters

NIKKI BISHOP and BARBARA HAMILTON

Emerson Process Management

F
ired heaters are used Back to basics: the instruments and final control. It is impor-
extensively throughout Just as a building is only as tant to address and mitigate
refineries for heating, good as its foundation, a proc- process and mechanical issues.
vapourisation and thermal ess control system is only as Necessary measurement and
cracking of various process good as the instruments that actuator improvements are
fluids. These heaters are essen- provide the measurement data made in order to reduce control
tial for refinery operation.
Figure 1 shows a typical proc-
ess fired heater.
The main objective for fired
Stack
heater optimisation is to
safely control to a target the
combined coil outlet tempera-
ture while minimising energy Damper
costs, emissions and overall
variability. To achieve this
objective, the heater must be Breeching
able to operate safely near Convection
constraints and demonstrate section HTF in
stable and robust performance.
A holistic approach that exam- Shield HTF out
ines the field devices, basic section
control strategy and loop
tuning is recommended to Radiant
establish a solid foundation. section Coil
Advanced process control
methods coupled with a solid
combustion control strategy
provide an effective means
of safely operating near
constraints. Even further, Burner
pre-engineered application
solutions offer great benefits in Air blower
the ease of implementation and
support. Figure 1 Typical process fired heater

www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000366 PTQ Q2 2012 1

 instrumentation necessary for
operation. While this strategy
allows for operation of the
Oxygen AC
heaters, it lacks the sophistica-
CO AC
FC Air flow tion necessary for optimal
Stack temp. T1 performance. A full solution,
including a burner manage-
Draught pressure PC Firebox ment system (BMS) for safety
temp. and the necessary instruments,
Total charge FC TI TC TI final control elements and
flow damper actuator, is the ideal
FC Pass 1 recipe for optimal heater
FC TI TI
Column performance.
outlet temp.
TC
Pass 2 Ultimate control strategy
FC TI TI The ultimate goal for a fired
heater is to heat a process fluid
Pass 3 to a desired temperature.
FC TI TI
Maintaining a constant outlet
Fuel temperature is critical for the
heating
value Pass 4 process. Variations in outlet
AI FC temperature introduce variabil-
PC Fuel gas ity into the overall process.
pressure
Fuel gas
Since the optimum operation
flow will almost always be near
constraints (for instance, maxi-
Figure 2 Typical fired heater measurements mum tube temperatures,
minimum excess air), variation
loop variability. Reducing vari- efficient combustion. Figure 2 in the process requires the oper-
ability on key loops enables the shows typical fired heater ator to stay further away from
heater to operate closer to the measurements. the actual limit to provide the
constraint conditions, which necessary buffer or safety
increases throughput, efficiency Beyond base regulatory: margin to handle any unex-
and safety. For example, it is the full solution pected process upsets. As a
essential to tightly control the Many fired heaters are instru- result, manufacturers are not
air and fuel flows for safe and mented with only the minimum always able to achieve the most
efficient operation of their
assets. Figure 3 shows a repre-
sentation of the impact of
variability on cost.

$
Reducing variability means
$ ensuring a robust and stable
control strategy is in place.
Implementing a fully auto-
Cost

matic, regulatory control

High variablity
Figure 3 Process variability cost impact
system ensures the coil outlet
temperature is maintained at
Lowered variablity
the desired setpoint, while
simultaneously balancing pass
temperatures and airflow. Pass
balancing adjusts the flows
through each tube so that no

2 PTQ Q2 2012 www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000366

pass runs hotter than the
others, reducing hot spots
within the coils, which trans-
lates to longer run lengths and
the potential to operate at a
higher severity.
Bringing the heat:
combustion controls
As previously noted, the ulti-
mate goal for a fired heater is
to safely heat a process fluid to
a desired temperature. The
required energy is provided by
combustion of a fuel to heat the
coils. The efficiency of the
combustion process determines
the efficiency of the heater. A
single-knob combustion control
strategy allows for safe, effi-
cient firing at any desired
charge rate. With single-knob
control, the desired coil outlet
temperature is maintained
while operating within mechan-
ical and thermodynamic heater
constraints at all times.
A proven strategy for safe
combustion is to employ an air
and fuel cross-limiting solution.
Cross-limiting is the traditional
approach of increasing airflow
first on an increasing fuel
demand and decreasing fuel
first on a decreasing demand.
This strategy prevents unsafe,
fuel-rich environments from
being introduced by the auto-
mation system. Typically, this
is done by empirically deter-
mining the air, fuel and stack
oxygen levels at various
demand points. A linear rela-
tionship is typically used
between demand and fuel flow.
The relationship between
demand and airflow follows
the empirically derived curve
so that the oxygen target at
each demand point ensures
complete combustion.
Typically, the lowest stack
www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000366
Losses due to
incomplete
combustion
Fuel rich
Excess air
Figure 4 Stack O2 vs available heat
oxygen level that does not
produce carbon monoxide (CO)
in the stack is best for both effi-
ciency and emissions
compliance. CO in the stack is
an indication that the fuel is
not completely burned.
Advanced combustion
controls allow for maximum
capture of the available heat in
the fuel with less variability.
This is important even if the
fuel is a refinery waste gas that
is free because it reduces green-
house gas emissions, makes the
fuel available for other uses
such as boilers or co-gen plants,
and allows for more through-
put in a capacity-constrained
situation. It is impossible to
safely drive stack oxygen levels
down without robust combus-
tion controls. When air and fuel
are not well coordinated, not
only is efficiency affected, but a
fuel-rich environment risks an
explosion if furnace oxygen
levels get too low. Figure 4
shows the relationship between
excess air and available heat.
The economic savings result-
ing from operating a furnace at
lower excess air can easily be
O2
CO
Available heat
Losses due
to excess air
Fuel lean
calculated based on the extra
energy used to heat the extra
air from ambient to the stack
exhaust conditions. The stack
oxygen concentration is an
indication of how much excess
air there is. If all the oxygen is
perfectly consumed, the oxygen
concentration will be 0. This,
however, is not safe, so most
furnaces operate with oxygen
concentrations of 1% or higher.
Decreasing the oxygen concen-
tration in the stack from the
current level to a lower value
results in energy savings that
can be substantial, depending
on the starting point and the
cost of fuel. Figure 5 illustrates
the relationship between
reduced stack oxygen, effi-
ciency and energy savings.
Advanced process control
To achieve optimal heater
operation, the heater must be
able to operate safely near
constraints and demonstrate
stable and robust performance.
This means balancing pass
temperatures while simultane-
ously ensuring complete
combustion and minimising
PTQ Q2 2012 3
 90

88

86 150ºF
Conversion efficiency, %

84 200ºF
250ºF
82
300ºF
80
350ºF
78 400ºF $/yr savings
76 450ºF 100 MM BTU/hr
500ºF $12/kSCF gas
74
550ºF 400ºF stack gas rise
72 600ºF 1,000,000
70 650ºF
68 700ºF Stack temperature rise
800,000

Cost, $/yr
11
Flue gas oxygen, %

10 600,000
9
8 Step 1
7
400,000
6
5
4
3 Step 2 200,000
2
1
0 0
100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 2 3 5 7 10
Excess air, % O2, %

Figure 5 Stack O2 vs efficiency/cost

energy. Model predictive fuel cross limits) are anticipated deviation between the passes.
control (MPC) that is native to (predicted) and manipulated This chart demonstrates the
the regulatory control proces- variables are adjusted significant reduction in pass
sor provides a high-speed, accordingly. outlet variability when the
redundant and robust control A model predictive control model predictive controller is
solution. strategy also reduces process online.
MPC uses relationships variability, because optimal
between controlled, manipu- operation passes are balanced MPC put to good use
lated, disturbance and not to achieve equal flow but A multinational oil company
constraint variables to create to achieve equal temperature successfully implemented an
dynamic process models that rise across all the tubes. advanced process control strat-
are used with an optimiser to Pass balancing based upon egy on its fired heaters as part
determine the best set of proc- temperature rise creates proc- of a larger APC project on the
ess changes that control all ess conditions that favour more unit and achieved remarkable
variables to target. Known rela- efficient overall heat transfer business results. Two fired
tionships between variables can and balance the coke build-up, heaters on the atmospheric
be input directly into the MPC allowing the unit to crude unit were operated in
control module. Alternatively, run longer between decoking parallel, with poor efficiency.
an automated bump test shutdowns. Due to various process and
sequence is used to establish Figure 6 shows an actual equipment reasons, these heat-
the process models. Constraint example on an ethylene crack- ers operated only with
violations (such as skin temper- ing furnace, where MPC is significant manual intervention.
atures, fuel pressures and air/ used to control the temperature Process interactions made

4 PTQ Q2 2012 www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000366

conventional, automatic control
less than ideal. 1/2 sev error 3/4 sev error 5/6 sev error 2 cot offset vs 1
4 cot offset vs 3 6 cot offset vs 5 Feed 1 Feed 2
The solution to the problem
was an MPC strategy that 20 70
Controller
allowed for safe and stable on-line
15 60
operation of both furnaces

Online variability
simultaneously. These furnaces 10 50
can now operate near their 5 40
constraints in spite of significant
variations in fuel gas, feed rate, 0 30
crude composition and feed –5 20
temperature. Implementation of Decoke
–10 10
this advanced process control
Decoke
strategy on the heaters resulted –15 0
in an annual fuel savings of
–20 –10
more than $100 000. The heaters
am 8

a 9

am 9

am 9

a 9

a 9

am 9

am 9
12 200

12 200

12 200

12 200

12 200

12 200

12 200

12 200
now require fewer manual

27 m

28 m

17 m
2/

1/

3/

5/
/1

/2

/3

/4
actions and can manage load
/1

7/

8/

7/
16
18

changes automatically in closed-

loop control. Excess stack
oxygen is reduced and efficiency
increased in both heaters.
Nikki Bishop is a Senior Application
Consultant with Emerson Process
Management in Atlanta, Georgia.
Her experience includes energy,
pharmaceuticals, power generation and
Figure 6 MPC controller online variability
refining. She holds a BS in chemical
Links
engineering from Georgia Tech.
Barbara Hamilton is a Senior Energy
Consultant with Emerson in New York. She More articles from the following
has 30 years of engineering experience category:
and holds a BS in chemical engineering Fired Heaters
from the University of Maine.

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